Publications by authors named "Magdalena Schindler"
Article Synopsis
- Changes in gene expression are key to phenotypic innovation, but the details of how these changes occur and affect trait evolution are not well understood.
- This study investigates the genetic mechanisms behind masculinizing ovotestes in female moles, focusing on the role of SALL1 expression and enhancer activity.
- Findings reveal that while 3D organization of the SALL1 locus is conserved, there is a notable divergence in enhancer functionality, indicating that modifications in gene expression could explain how new traits evolve.
In developing embryos, specific cell populations are often removed to remodel tissue architecture for organogenesis. During urinary tract development, an epithelial duct called the common nephric duct (CND) gets shortened and eventually eliminated to remodel the entry point of the ureter into the bladder. Here we show that non-professional efferocytosis (the process in which epithelial cells engulf apoptotic bodies) is the main mechanism that contributes to CND shortening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegulatory landscapes drive complex developmental gene expression, but it remains unclear how their integrity is maintained when incorporating novel genes and functions during evolution. Here, we investigated how a placental mammal-specific gene, Zfp42, emerged in an ancient vertebrate topologically associated domain (TAD) without adopting or disrupting the conserved expression of its gene, Fat1. In ESCs, physical TAD partitioning separates Zfp42 and Fat1 with distinct local enhancers that drive their independent expression.
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- The uterus is crucial for embryo implantation and fetal growth, but most current research focuses on later pregnancy stages to improve outcomes for premature births.
- There is a need for in vitro (lab-based) models that concentrate on uterine tissue to better understand diseases like endometriosis and uterine cancers, as well as the process of embryo implantation.
- The text suggests the possibility of creating stem cell-based models of the uterus using techniques like microfluidics and 3D printing to explore these important issues.
Article Synopsis
- Human periimplantation development involves transforming naive pluripotent epiblasts into a polarized epithelium, crucial for forming the amniotic cavity through lumenogenesis.
- Researchers developed a high-throughput in vitro model using microfluidic technology to encapsulate human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in microgels, leading to self-organizing polarized epiblast spheroids.
- The study found that encapsulated primed hPSCs needed different conditions than naive hPSCs and showed increased lumen formation during the transition, providing a basis for future research on human epiblast development and organization.
Article Synopsis
- - The study tackles the challenge of linking genetic variations to observable traits by exploring how female moles develop masculinizing ovotestes, using advanced phylogenomic techniques.
- - Researchers combined various biological datasets (genome assembly, transcriptomics, etc.) to identify key genetic rearrangements that affect genes related to sex differentiation in moles.
- - Through experiments with transgenic mice, the study demonstrates that changes in noncoding genetic sequences can significantly influence physical traits, underscoring the effectiveness of holistic genomic analysis.
The biotoxin okadaic acid (OA) is a lipophilic secondary metabolite of marine microalgae. Therefore, OA accumulates in the fatty tissue of various shellfish and may thus enter the food chain. The ingestion of OA via contaminated marine species can lead to the diarrhetic shellfish poisoning syndrome characterized by the occurrence of a series of acute gastrointestinal symptoms in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlternative splicing (AS) strongly increases proteome diversity and functionality in eukaryotic cells. Protein secretion is a tightly controlled process, especially when it occurs in a tissue-specific and differentiation-dependent manner. While previous work has focussed on transcriptional and post-translational regulatory mechanisms, the impact of AS on the secretory pathway remains largely unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn flowering plant plastids and mitochondria, multiple organellar RNA editing factor (MORF/RIP) proteins are required at most sites for efficient C to U RNA editing catalyzed by the RNA editosome. MORF proteins harbor a conserved stretch of residues (MORF-box), form homo- and heteromers and interact with selected PPR (pentatricopeptide repeat) proteins, which recognize each editing site. The molecular function of the MORF-box remains elusive since it shares no sequence similarity with known domains.
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